Modes of Remembering in the Contemporary Spanish Novel

Abstract

This article examines the way in which the topic of civil war and Francoist repression has been narrated and understood in the contemporary Spanish novel after the turn of the millennium. The boom in what the article calls ‘the affiliative memory novel’ has been intimately related to the activities conducted by popular movements dedicated to the so‐called recuperation of the historical memory, but whether and to what extent is it possible to describe the phenomenon at hand as a coherent sub‐genre? It is a hypothesis that the way in which the relation between past, present and future is imagined in the text is, at least to some extent, related to the narrative form in which the novels are told, and by combining two paradigms of modal description, one narrative and the other ethico‐political, the article proposes eight different modes of remembering, among which three are considered more typical or generic. Finally, these three modes, the essentializing, the reconciliatory and the metamodernist modes, are examined and discussed within a transnational perspective.

New approaches to translation, conflict and memory: Narratives of the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship

“…As noted by Brodzki, "literature in the late twentieth century reflects an almost global obsession with transmission, preservation, repression, and potential effacement of memory as an instrument of historical consciousness" (2007: 101). Hansen (2016) also identifies this "globalizing memory culture" as an operative framework for the comprehension of modes of remembrance. This is the context of historical memory in which the novel Los girasoles ciegos was published, a twenty first-century context that finds its roots in the last quarter of the twentieth century.…”

“…Although incomplete, these figures indicate a general trend regarding the reception of the novel in Portugal, which is also supported by a relative paucity of interest from both the general and specialist press (7 references, each no longer than a column). There is no obvious justification for this apathy towards Méndez's book; nevertheless, it is interesting to see how this work remains in print and is still available in retail outlets, which I would claim is an obvious indicator of an ethical-political position of the editor (as presented by Hansen 2016).…”

“…Franco died in November 1975 and a period that became known as the Transition 1 immediately ensued. Understanding the Transition is key to understanding how and why the great debate about memory only emerged at the beginning of the twenty first century (Hansen 2016).…”

Gallegas en La Habana: memorias en femenino de emigración y exilio transatlánticos en Sol de Inverno de Rosa Aneiros

“…Alfredo y los históricos intelectuales galleguistas que se relacionan con él representan la inteligencia, la dignidad, la libertad, la razón y la democracia frente a la violencia, la sinrazón y el totalitarismo, tanto del franquismo como de los fascismos europeos y de la dictadura cubana de Batista. Así, a medida que avanza, la obra se erige en una novela de memoria transnacional, abarcando experiencias de ambos lados del Atlántico y respondiendo al patrón de memoria cosmopolita, que se caracteriza, entre otros rasgos, por colocar el foco en la experiencia de las víctimas y por presentar una visión dicotómica del mundo basada en la aplicación de las categorías del "bien" y del "mal" a los conceptos abstractos de democracia y totalitarismo (Hansen, 2015(Hansen, , 2016. La correlación que la autora establece entre la guerra española y la Segunda Guerra Mundial, bien como la presentación de la resistencia al fascismo en Europa y de la disidencia cubana como una misma causa única facilitan esta visión cosmopolita del pasado 10 .…”

"Non hai noite tan longa": investigación, historia y memoria del tardofranquismo

“…Alén do anterior, na ficcionalización do conflito de memorias (Jelin 2002) que se produce na sociedade actual entre os partidarios 29 Algúns dos autores citados ao longo deste traballo (Gómez López-Quiñones 2006, Hansen 2016, Thompson 2009, entre outros moitos, teñen posto en relación o fenómeno da ficción da memoria coa ruptura do pacto de silencio e a aparición da memoria histórica na axenda pública española a partir do 2000.…”